MPs demand action over CCS blow

Doncaster’s MPs have demanded action to secure the future of Hatfield Colliery after the Government’s decision to drop the 2Co Energy CCS project from its competition for Government backing.

The MPs, Caroline Flint, Ed Milibandand Rosie Winterton had demanded an urgent meeting with Secretary of State for Energy Ed Davey to seek answers about why the project was dropped. The meeting took place today (December 18).

Said Caroline Flint: “When the Government announced the shortlist, they said: ‘the decision was made on deliverability, affordability, and value for the taxpayer’. We hotly disputed the suggestion that the Doncaster project was less deliverable than other projects. The evidence suggests that it was ahead in preparing detailed designs. We also take issue with ‘affordability’ because the use of carbon to recover oil from under the North Sea adds value making the project more affordable.”

Said Ed Miliband: “We demanded the meeting because Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a major energy technology of the future, in this case next to one of the few remaining productive collieries in South Yorkshire. The Government appears determined that the Don Valley Power Project will not get its support – so it is essential that they offer a strategy for Hatfield to help to secure jobs and encourage new businesses to locate at the site. I’m determined that Hatfield can have a future and remain hopeful that CCS can still bring benefits to South Yorkshire. This issue is about jobs and growth, in a new field of energy production. Today, Ed Davey showed little sense that he had looked at the bigger picture, such as the scope to create new low carbon jobs and growth in South Yorkshire and on the Humber.”

Said Rosie Winterton: “We believe Britain can be a world leader in Carbon Capture and Storage, and here was a project that would remove up to five million tonnes of Co2 per year and invest £5 billion in the UK’s energy infrastructure. The project had reached an advanced stage of design and would be up and running within five years, we do not want to see this expertise or technology cast aside by the government.”

The MPs told Ed Davey that the Don Valley Power Project was ranked No1 by the EU in their assessment of CCS schemes; and that the advanced stage of design gave them a good prospect of delivering a major scheme with huge benefits for South Yorkshire.